BayernLB books €131 mln loss at Hungarian unit in Q1-Q3

MTI – Econews

Monday, November 19, 2012, 06:45

Germany's BayernLB Group on Thursday said it booked a €131m pre-tax loss at its Hungarian unit MKB in Q1-Q3. The loss narrowed from negative earnings of €186 million in the same period a year earlier. BayernLB blamed the loss on Hungary's "disproportionately high" bank levy and the country's poorly performing economy. It said risk provisions for MKB climbed by €83 million to €152 million during the period, "primarily triggered by the difficult economic climate in Hungary".

MKB Private Banking has announced the addition of robot advisors to its digital services, becoming the first player in Hungaryʼs banking sector to utilize such solutions, according to a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal.

MKB Bank is set to close 15 branches to improve its cost efficiency, optimizing its countrywide network after investigating its work practices and deciding on making changes for the sake of sustainable and profitable operations, according to a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal.

Listed holding company Konzum said on Monday that it would indirectly acquire a 9.62% stake in MKB Bank from the latterʼs employee stock ownership program (ESOP), pending regulatory approval by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB).

Commercial bank MKB announced on Tuesday the full replacement of its core banking system, the retirement and consolidation of roughly ten additional systems, and the modernization of its entire IT architecture. The transformation triggered some glitches in customer access, however.

MKB Bank plans to sell a stake of between 20% and 30% on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT) next year to meet the terms of a European Union-sanctioned bailout, CEO Ádám Balog told news wire Bloomberg in an interview on Wednesday.

The MKB Bank group almost tripled its consolidated pre-tax profit from a year earlier to HUF 20.7 billion in 2017, the bank said on Thursday. Results improved in almost all segments, on the retail and corporate market as well as in private banking.

The Hungarian banking sector saw profits jump 50% last year and domestic ownership further growing, according to the latest data from the National Bank of Hungary (MNB). Despite speculation about the state possibly selling Budapest Bank, we appear to be looking at a healthy sector that might face some kind of concentration, MKB Bank tells the Budapest Business Journal.

The latest major leak of millions of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, dubbed the Paradise Papers in the press, includes reference to "some influential Hungarian public figures," notes Direkt36, the Hungarian investigative journalism center participating in the project.

MKB Bank had HUF 19.46 billion after-tax profit in the first half of 2017, compared to HUF 1.54 bln in the corresponding period of last year, the lenderʼs consolidated IFRS report published on Wednesday shows, as reported by state news wire MTI.